Yesterday I waxed poetic about suffering withdrawals from my beloved Patatjes Met (Dutch Fries with Mayo) and my never-ending quest to find something to satisfy the cravings now that I can't have them anymore.

Then today I was forwarded a positively reprehensible rant on how hungry children should just just eat from a dumpster, and had to seriously restrain my rage to keep from typing "FUCK YOU, RUSH LIMBAUGH, YOU VILE PIECE OF SHIT!" in huge letters on a blog post and clicking "publish." Which would have been bad because I accept he represents a point of view for a large segment of the American population, and has a right to spew his crazy-ass shit just as much as the next guy...

Except... not this time.

I am extremely fortunate that I've never had to go hungry. It's something I try to be thankful for every day. But I have worked with an organization that helps people who do go hungry, and it's from this perspective that I can say Rush Limbaugh doesn't know what the fuck he is talking about. He is so far beyond stupid... beyond ignorant... beyond crazy... that my mind just boggles that anybody could be this depraved when it comes to children.

Let's break it down, shall we?

RUSH LIMBAUGH:A companion story from AOL News: "Record Number of US Kids Facing Summer of Hunger. With the sc-rewl (school?) year ending in communities across America, more than 16 million children face a summer of hunger." Now, Michelle Obama told us they're all so fat and out of shape and overweight that a summer off from government eating might be just the ticket.

Kids are fat and overweight because A) Society has transitioned to a sedentary lifestyle of video games and other "activities" which lack physical exercise, and B) Healthy foods are hideously expensive, but government subsidies make shitty unhealthy food cheap, so this is what people buy. But this is neither here nor there, because there are kids in poverty who don't even get the shitty unhealthy food to eat.

But, even if this weren't the case, this is still a horrible thing to say. Kids... WHETHER THEY ARE FAT OR NOT... should not have to go hungry in the wealthiest nation on earth. Put on a healthier diet? Sure! Taught to exercise? Absolutely! That's what Michelle Obama was talking about. But starve? Are you fucking kidding me? Jeez what an asshole.

RUSH LIMBAUGH:This, of course, takes into no account that the parents, I guess, just can sit around and let their kids starve. Why if the kids don't do it, they're gonna starve -- if the schools don't do it, the kids are going to starve.

RUSH LIMBAUGH:God, this is just -- we can't escape these people. We just can't escape them. They live in the utter deniability of basic human nature. They actually have it in their heads somehow that parents are so rotten that they will let their kids go hungry and starve, unless the schools take care of it.

And here is where Rush Limbaugh proves he's a fucking moron. THERE ARE INDEED PARENTS WHO SIT AROUND AND LET THEIR KIDS STARVE! Perhaps they are drug addicts or alcoholics in no condition to realize or care their kids are hungry... or maybe they're never around to notice... or maybe they are just so poor that they can only afford one meal a day, and that school lunch is what keeps their children from going hungry. Regardless, whether by design or choice, parents are letting their kids starve every day. I've seen it. And even if Rush can't get off his bloated, self-righteous ass and see for himself, he can certainly do some research at child shelters, talk to child welfare workers at our schools, or ring up some children's charities to get his fucking facts straight. But experience has taught him that he doesn't have to. His listeners will believe his fucked-up bullshit whether it's true or not, so why bother with actual facts? Fiction is more inflammatory anyway.

RUSH LIMBAUGH:
I think, you know what we're going to do here, we're going to start a feature on this program: "Where to find food." For young demographics, where to find food. Now that school is out, where to find food. We can have a daily feature on this. And this will take us all the way through the summer. Where to find food. And, of course, the first will be: "Try your house." It's a thing called the refrigerator. You probably already know about it. Try looking there. There are also things in what's called the kitchen of your house called cupboards. And in those cupboards, most likely you're going to find Ding-Dongs, Twinkies, Lays ridgy potato chips, all kinds of dips and maybe a can of corn that you don't want, but it will be there.

Except when it isn't there. Because your parent or guardian is out getting stoned or drunk (or whatever) and hasn't bothered to buy food in a month and you've already eaten everything... everything... you manage to find in the house (assuming you still have a house because nobody's around to pay the rent). And since school is out and there's no lunch for you, the one meal you get is now gone. And since you're just a kid, what options do you have but to beg a neighbor (or even strangers) for something to eat? Or try to steal food. Or just go hungry because you don't know what else to do. You're a kid, after all. But even in houses where the parents are around, poverty can result in food being scarce at times... even with food stamps and government assistance. The reality is that hunger is all around us. Maybe the windows in Mr. Limbaugh's limousine are tinted so dark that he can't see families living in hunger on the street, but they exist... whether he chooses to acknowledge it or not.

RUSH LIMBAUGH:If that doesn't work, try a Happy Meal at McDonald's. You know where McDonald's is. There's the Dollar Menu at McDonald's and if they don't have Chicken McNuggets, dial 911 and ask for Obama.

And if you don't have a dollar... how the fuck can you buy something off the dollar menu? Again, THESE ARE KIDS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT! And the parting shot at Obama? Hey, at least he's trying to do something to help hungry kids... what the fuck are you doing, you worthless piece of shit excuse for a human being? Where's your solution?

RUSH LIMBAUGH:There's another place if none of these options work to find food; there's always the neighborhood dumpster. Now, you might find competition with homeless people there, but there are videos that have been produced to show you how to healthfully dine and how to dumpster dive and survive until school kicks back up in August. Can you imagine the benefit we would provide people?

So... hungry kids should just eat out of dumpsters. Got it.

You know, I try very hard not to allow hatred into my life, and my entire belief system is based on doing no harm or wishing no harm upon others. But Rush Limbaugh can just fuck off and die. And I mean literally die. Have another heart attack and just DIE. Slowly. With as much pain as possible. Somebody so hateful that they have no pity for a hungry child has no place on this earth, and I just don't care how that sounds.

Because people like Rush Limbaugh simply cannot win.

They just can't.

If the most innocent of us... the children... have no consideration by the adults who dictate how they are forced to live their lives, then we all lose. Because kids are victims of circumstance. They don't have any choice whether or not their parents are poor... or drug addicts... or don't care for them. And if the best the United States of America has to offer these kids is eating out of a dumpster when they have no food, then we don't deserve the many riches we are blessed with. We don't deserve anything at all... except the cold future that uncaring, heartless, reprehensible assholes like Rush Limbaugh are building for us.

Comments

Tell it. There aren’t words to describe the scum Limbaugh is. He obviously has no conscience or sense of perspective or humanity or…feh. Asshole.

I’ll bet Rush doesn’t do his own shopping, but I do, and I was wondering the other day – if potato chips are $4 dollars a bag, how does anyone who makes minimum wage afford to live? I just don’t get how they survive. I make…well, a lot more than that, and I still have to carefully consider how I spend my money so as to not run out…

When I first started getting into volunteering for kids charities, I started with probably the most superficial work you can get…. I painted murals at children’s hospitals. From there I moved on to helping out with everything from recovery houses to shelters.

To say this was an eye-opening experience is an understatement. I learned so many horrible things that my perception of how things work in our country was forever changed. I always thought that kids without homes ended up in orphanages or foster care. I was wrong. I always thought that sick kids got free medical care. I was wrong. I always thought that food stamps and welfare took care of hungry kids. I was wrong. There are a shocking number of kids that go without… without homes, without medical care, without food… every day. It is tragic on a horrifying level.

So when Rush Limbaugh says we should just tell a 10-year-old kid abandoned and hungry to eat out of a dumpster because school’s out and there’s no place they can go for food… well, there are words to describe what kind of scum he is… inhuman garbage. He’s trash, plain and simple.

There is something obscene about a person who makes $33,000,000 a year taking this tack. I don’t know exactly when the Right gave its full embrace to social Darwinism but somewhere along the way it became alright to disparage people who were less fortunate but I think that’s just about the point I recognized libertarianism as utopian nonsense.

Sadly in our time, this has not only become an acceptable take on someone else’s problems, it is at the very core of the political movement currently attempting to consolidate their power in Washington in the next election cycle. Selfishness and meanness disguised as a higher order of thinking and philosophy.

All we need to remember is that it was America’s hero and idealized beacon… Ronald Reagan… under home the homeless population soared because of facility closings and the national debt skyrocketed to outspend the Russians and win the cold war. That is seen as the American ideal now. But it is liking slapping a dangerous schizophrenic in the mouth and telling him to “snap out of it.” It doesn’t work.

I thought the election of President Obama, if seen as a rejection of the Republican failures over the last twenty tears, put the nail in the coffin of the Right’s discredited worldview. Apparently – obviously – I was wrong. American Conservatives got their groove back by appealing to one of the lowest possible common denominators; selfishness. That this is being led by people who are well-off and have the least need to worry about their security or their future makes it even more obscene.

In my mind, it all comes down to fear. These people make you scared, so whatever you have… whether a little or a lot… seems threatened. So, in this respect, you are 100% correct. It’s selfishness alright… selfishness propagated by fear.

It pretty much HAS to be, doesn’t it?

Because blind fear is the only thing that explains how a sane person could listen to this shit and think tossing a hungry child in a dumpster is a good solution.

Its not like we need any more proof that Rush is a greedy, fat, delusional pig with an excess of self-admiration. Every time I hear more obscene garbage that’s come out of his mouth my head tried to explode.

You know, I *was* having a pleasant Saturday morning, drinking my coffee and eating my cereal, reading blogs, and now I’m just all pissed off! Thanks for sharing your indignation! 😛

You’ve got me allll riled up now, and I really hope Rush Limbaugh is forced to watch someone pop Vicodin or something that will make him piss himself with envy.

I see those kids at school with Z, the ones who get and eat their free breakfast. The ones who gobble it down and you can tell it’s been a bit since they’ve eaten last. They’re also the same kids, at lunch, who get the free lunch and make sure they get seconds because maybe they’re not sure if they’re going to get dinner or not.
Aw, fuck, I am not even going to go on because it’s clear Rush can go fuck himself but seriously. I’d like to kick his bloated ass.

I would never suggest someone dumpster dive, however, I’ll point out a flaw in the notion that may not be obvious. I used to work for a statewide hunger advocacy organization (despite the way I type it there, we weren’t advocating statewide hunger — we were working for the opposite) … and it was pointed out that some businesses would pour bleach on any food they tossed to discourage dumpster diving. I don’t know if that’s still the case.

Overweight windbags are the last people on earth who should be telling the less fortunate how to feed themselves.

The thing is –he’s NOT harmless nor are the mindless lemmings who eat his shit up.

He needs to be forced to sit in dependency neglect and abuse court…he needs to be made to go into these homes where any money goes to crystal meth and no food exists cause the parent(s) don’t want to eat.

The last year I taught was in a public school in which at least 60% of the kids qualified for free or reduced lunch. Never met a guardian who seemed to be under the influence. Then again some of the kids were being raised by aunts or grandmothers because mom and dad used drugs. And some of the grandmothers? Raising several grandchildren. But the kids ate over the summer when there wasn’t free breakfast and lunch. Or I like to think they did since they did not show up in the fall looking malnourished. But I wonder. Because whenever I brought food into the classroom for them, they devoured it like it was their last meal. They would eat so fast that they would make themselves sick. And while everyone else in the room was disgusted, I would calmly clean it up.

The thing is that school districts used to have enough money for summer school. And the kids who qualified for free or reduced meals during the school year got them during the summer as well. With budget cuts summer school is nearly non-existent in many districts now. And so the less able of us is left out in the cold once again.

Pisses me off beyond belief. Children — and animals — should never be the victims of our folly in my opinion.

How unbelievably sad. The whole idea that some people think this way, and can actually justify having children go through this is beyond words.
what a scum bag…

puts things in a different perspective, we moan and groan about our lives “not having” or “not having enough” yet there people out there whether they are children or adults who truly have nothing. sigh..

If the government had just kept their greedy hands out of the food supply in the first place, and out of the job market, and out of corporations, and out of welfare, (welfare could be eliminated if the government had kept their hands out of stuff, because the upper class would have enough untaxed money that enough of it would be donated due to PR stunts to sustain the homeless), and out of all the other stuff except making sure that people don’t kill each other and that our highways and trains are safe, we would not have this problem. Just look and Hong-Kong. Their government does almost nothing, just maintains infrastructure and police and other essentials, and they have some of the most prosperous people on the planet. Just another example of capitalism and free-markets doing their thing.

I would submit that perhaps, instead of paying Elton John $1 million to sing at his wedding (someone married him, think of that), he should have given that money to a food bank or something. Maybe Elton did.

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